I would like to remind anyone that thinks that serial is there last option, you may just need to do a good flash. Several people have swore up and down their routers are bricked until they try a good guide, then everything works fine.
From what I can tell serial seems to be a last resort solely because of the difficulty with it. I have yet to recieve a fon, but it looks like I skip a whole bunch of steps by hardwireing directly into the serial port. In addition, for the $1 (literally) plus shipping, I have a full on USB-serial premade board. No questions asked, with a driver CD, ready to go.
My current plan is to take that board, take off the male A connector and replace it with a female USB B connector. After that, some wirewrap soldering (not wirewrap, but still wrapping the wires, then soldering them in place...I have used this technique in the past with much sucess), a little bit of glue and some cutting, and I will have a USB port on my fon that connects me directly to the serial port. No need to try and circumvent SSH, no need to worry about what firmware version I have, and no need to worry about "what if" I brick
I am also a hardware hacker at heart...a rusty one at that apparently ^_^
Blue connects to pad 11 while white connects to pad 10 on my board....3 and 6 are occupied by red and yellow, along with a resistor linking it to pad 10. The chip I have appears to be a Silicon Laboratories CP2101 (which according to the data sheet is a USB UART, so thats about par). If we are to look at the datasheet, pad 10 on this module (a white wire) is ground, pad 6 (which is a yellow wire here) would be TXD, and pad 3 (which is red) would be RXD.
However, you are right...the data sheet doesnt show any need to connect the GND wire anywhere on the serial side of things....I was wrong, and am getting old :)
The datasheet is available on Silicon Laboratories website without too much searching...it appears to me that this chipset is probably kept in stock, and the correct cable is put on for what type is needed...my cable came with a funky looking barrel connector, might be slightly different then yours (and why the colors are different), but the boards appear to be the same (which is why the pad numbers line up)
Joined: 25 Oct 2006 Posts: 28 Location: Pennsylvania USA
Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 5:46 Post subject:
Ahh, the chip in mine was a Prolific chip, so different cablekit. Yeah, if I wanted I could embed this in the FON, but after I found out the Kyocera phone I had has a dud serial, I use this as a general purpose USB to serial adapter for all sorts of stuff. I too enjoy hack in hardware.
Blue connects to pad 11 while white connects to pad 10 on my board....3 and 6 are occupied by red and yellow, along with a resistor linking it to pad 10. The chip I have appears to be a Silicon Laboratories CP2101 (which according to the data sheet is a USB UART, so thats about par). If we are to look at the datasheet, pad 10 on this module (a white wire) is ground, pad 6 (which is a yellow wire here) would be TXD, and pad 3 (which is red) would be RXD.
I tried the white as ground, the yellow as Tx, and Red as Rx. However, I was only able to see garbage characters on bootup.. Each time though the garbage appeared to be the same. Settings were 9600-8-n-1 no hardware control. Am I missing something? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Plug in the power wait 1.5seconds and then plug in the serial cable...
Hit Ctrl C ... _________________ WRT54G,GS v1.1, V2, V3 V4, V5
WR850G V2, V3
Fonera 2100
Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 2:38 Post subject: RS232 alternative
use N mosfets and 1k-20k resistors instead of an RS232 converter
The image won't come up because bravehost is a very evil piece of garbage, but the link to the simple circuit is here http://chiyostetanus.bravehost.com/rs232conv.png (and why does Google never index my http://chiyostetanus.bravehost.com page?!!!)
This circuit works. It does not work with all usb to serial converters (especially the cheap Chinese ones) but always works with real serial ports. Requires low and high connections on the port (this is why). I honestly doubt the other rs232 circuits work with USB. Sometimes the USB ones can (and must) connect directly. Use this circuit since you don't need special parts, just CMOS technology! I use tftpd32 instead of pumpkin as a server for this sort of thing. Putty is better than hyperterminal! Yes, now it does serial (com ports) too!
Last edited by meltyblood on Sun May 27, 2007 8:03; edited 3 times in total
Plug in the power wait 1.5seconds and then plug in the serial cable...
Hit Ctrl C ...
Even if I am missing redboot, wouldn't I see the boot messages scroll across the screen? I am seeing nothing which makes me believe my serial cable isn't working in the first place. I am getting so frustrated with the serial cable. I have bought all kinds of phone cables, USB-serial adapters, chips from MAXIM, audio cable connectors, 10 slot connectors, I still can't get it to work. I put most of the details in my other post, but if someone could lend a hand..thanks.
Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 16:59 Post subject: Openwrt death at console
I built a working serial cable using my mosfet design for my fon2200 (this IS a fon2200, don't say it's not), but now I've got serious problems.
After flashing to openwrt (last command entered is "exec" to get here), I'd eventually have to reboot the router. After a reboot, everything goes to hell.
What's most outstanding is this line:
Warning** FLASH configuration checksum error or invalid key
From start, to flash, to reboot, this is a log of everything:
Code:
Board: FON1
RAM: 0x80000000-0x81000000, [0x80040aa0-0x80fe1000] available
FLASH: 0xa8000000 - 0xa87f0000, 128 blocks of 0x00010000 bytes each.
RedBoot> fis init
About to initialize [format] FLASH image system - continue (y/n)? y
*** Initialize FLASH Image System
... Erase ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Raw file loaded 0x80041000-0x801e0fff, assumed entry at 0x80041000--------------
RedBoot> fis create -b 0x80041000 -f 0xA8030000 -l 0x00700000 -e 0x00000000 rootfs------------------------------------------------------------------------------
... Erase from 0xa8030000-0xa8730000: ................................................................................................................----------
... Program from 0x80041000-0x80741000 at 0xa8030000: ................................................................................................................--------------------------------------------------------------------------
... Erase from 0xa87e0000-0xa87f0000: .-----------------------------------------
... Program from 0x80ff0000-0x81000000 at 0xa87e0000: .-------------------------
RedBoot> load -r -b %{FREEMEMLO} openwrt-atheros-2.6-vmlinux.lzma---------------
Using default protocol (TFTP)
Raw file loaded 0x80040c00-0x800f0bff, assumed entry at 0x80040c00
RedBoot> fis create -r 0x80041000 -e 0x80041000 vmlinux.bin.l7
... Erase from 0xa8730000-0xa87e0000: ...........
... Program from 0x80040c00-0x800f0c00 at 0xa8730000: ...........
... Erase from 0xa87e0000-0xa87f0000: .
... Program from 0x80ff0000-0x81000000 at 0xa87e0000: .
RedBoot>
RedBoot> fis load -l vmlinux.bin.l7
Image loaded from 0x80041000-0x80289086
RedBoot> exec
Now booting linux kernel:
Base address 0x80030000 Entry 0x80041000
Cmdline :
Linux version 2.6.19.2 (buildslave@brick) (gcc version 4.1.2) #1 Wed May 23 14:05:24 BST 2007
CPU revision is: 00019064
Determined physical RAM map:
memory: 01000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
Initrd not found or empty - disabling initrd
Built 1 zonelists. Total pages: 4064
Kernel command line: console=ttyS0,9600 rootfstype=squashfs,jffs2 init=/etc/preinit
Primary instruction cache 16kB, physically tagged, 4-way, linesize 16 bytes.
Primary data cache 16kB, 4-way, linesize 16 bytes.
Synthesized TLB refill handler (20 instructions).
Synthesized TLB load handler fastpath (32 instructions).
Synthesized TLB store handler fastpath (32 instructions).
Synthesized TLB modify handler fastpath (31 instructions).
PID hash table entries: 64 (order: 6, 256 bytes)
Using 92.000 MHz high precision timer.
Dentry cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Memory: 13536k/16384k available (1942k kernel code, 2848k reserved, 282k data, 112k init, 0k highmem)
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
Checking for 'wait' instruction... available.
NET: Registered protocol family 16
Radio config found at offset 0xf8(0x1f8)
NET: Registered protocol family 2
IP route cache hash table entries: 128 (order: -3, 512 bytes)
TCP established hash table entries: 512 (order: -1, 2048 bytes)
TCP bind hash table entries: 256 (order: -2, 1024 bytes)
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 512 bind 256)
TCP reno registered
squashfs: version 3.0 (2006/03/15) Phillip Lougher
Registering mini_fo version $Id$
JFFS2 version 2.2. (NAND) (C) 2001-2006 Red Hat, Inc.
io scheduler noop registered
io scheduler deadline registered (default)
Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 1 ports, IRQ sharing disabled
serial8250: ttyS0 at MMIO 0xb1100003 (irq = 37) is a 16550A
eth0: Dropping NETIF_F_SG since no checksum feature.
eth0: Atheros AR231x: 00:18:84:81:3a:cc, irq 4
cmdlinepart partition parsing not available
Searching for RedBoot partition table in spiflash at offset 0x7d0000
Searching for RedBoot partition table in spiflash at offset 0x7e0000
5 RedBoot partitions found on MTD device spiflash
Creating 5 MTD partitions on "spiflash":
0x00000000-0x00030000 : "RedBoot"
0x00030000-0x00730000 : "rootfs"
0x00730000-0x007e0000 : "vmlinux.bin.l7"
0x007e0000-0x007ef000 : "FIS directory"
0x007ef000-0x007f0000 : "RedBoot config"
ip_conntrack version 2.4 (128 buckets, 1024 max) - 240 bytes per conntrack
eth0: Configuring MAC for full duplex
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
TCP vegas registered
NET: Registered protocol family 1
NET: Registered protocol family 17
Bridge firewalling registered
802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8 Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
All bugs added by David S. Miller <davem@redhat.com>
Time: MIPS clocksource has been installed.
jffs2_scan_eraseblock(): End of filesystem marker found at 0x180000
jffs2_build_filesystem(): unlocking the mtd device... done.
jffs2_build_filesystem(): erasing all blocks after the end marker... done.
VFS: Mounted root (jffs2 filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 112k freed
Warning: unable to open an initial console.
Algorithmics/MIPS FPU Emulator v1.5
init started: BusyBox v1.4.2 (2007-05-23 13:49:44 BST) multi-call binary
Please press Enter to activate this console. PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
wlan: 0.8.4.2 (svn r2351)
ath_hal: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel.
ath_hal: 0.9.30.13 (AR5212, AR5312, RF2316, TX_DESC_SWAP)
ath_rate_minstrel: 1.2 (svn r2351)
Minstrel automatic rate control algorithm.
Look around rate set to 10%
EWMA rolloff level set to 75%
Max Segment size in the mrr set to 6000 us
wlan: mac acl policy registered
ath_ahb: 0.9.4.5 (svn r2351)
ath_pci: switching rfkill capability off
wifi0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps
wifi0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
wifi0: H/W encryption support: WEP AES AES_CCM TKIP
wifi0: mac 11.0 phy 4.8 radio 7.0
wifi0: Use hw queue 1 for WME_AC_BE traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 0 for WME_AC_BK traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 2 for WME_AC_VI traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 3 for WME_AC_VO traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 8 for CAB traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 9 for beacons
wifi0: Atheros 2315 WiSoC: mem=0xb0000000, irq=3
: 'wifi0' is disabled
BusyBox v1.4.2 (2007-05-23 13:49:44 BST) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
_______ ________ __
| |.-----.-----.-----.| | | |.----.| |_
| - || _ | -__| || | | || _|| _|
|_______|| __|_____|__|__||________||__| |____|
|__| W I R E L E S S F R E E D O M
KAMIKAZE (bleeding edge, r7305) -------------------
* 10 oz Vodka Shake well with ice and strain
* 10 oz Triple sec mixture into 10 shot glasses.
* 10 oz lime juice Salute!
---------------------------------------------------
root@OpenWrt:/# reboot
The system is going down NOW !!
Sending SIGTERM to all processes.
Requesting system reboot.
Restarting system.
+**Warning** FLASH configuration checksum error or invalid key
Use 'fconfig -i' to [re]initialize database
... waiting for BOOTP information
Ethernet eth0: MAC address 00:18:84:81:3a:cc
Can't get BOOTP info for device!
RedBoot(tm) bootstrap and debug environment [ROMRAM]
Non-certified release, version V1.00 - built 10:37:27, Dec 12 2006
Copyright (C) 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Red Hat, Inc.
Board: FON1
RAM: 0x80000000-0x81000000, [0x80040aa0-0x80fe1000] available
FLASH: 0xa8000000 - 0xa87f0000, 128 blocks of 0x00010000 bytes each.
RedBoot>
Edit:
BINGO, I've got it.
enter fconfig -i at redboot over serial, set bootp usage to false, run script at boot: true,
(Next two lines for dd-wrt or openwrt. Don't enter this line)
Code:
fis load -l vmlinux.bin.l7
exec
boot script timeout to 5
Ip: 192.168.1.254
subnet: (should be) 255.255.255.0
gateway: (blank)
default server IP address 192.168.1.166
This will allow functionality to be restored.
It takes almost a constant 15 minutes to flash the dd-wrt root.fs image. It takes about an hour or more to flash the equivalent openwrt-atheros-2.6-root.jffs2-64k image. Why?
Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 0:02 Post subject: Re: Openwrt death at console
meltyblood wrote:
It takes almost a constant 15 minutes to flash the dd-wrt root.fs image. It takes about an hour or more to flash the equivalent openwrt-atheros-2.6-root.jffs2-64k image. Why?
Must be something wrong with the hw addresses for openwrt as they differ from dd-wrt and need to be reevaluated for the fon-2200 is my guess...
